By Jeffry Scott
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/15/08
Eight years ago Chiman Rai allegedly paid Mississippi hit men $10,000
to choke and stab his daughter-in-law to death in her Union City
apartment while her 7-month-old daughter was nearby.
Her offense? She married his son, an Indian.
And she was black.
On Monday Rai, 69, goes on trial in Atlanta, accused of masterminding
the murder of Sparkle Michelle Rai, 22. Fulton County prosecutors are
asking for the death penalty as the family of the victim seeks finally
to see justice served.
"The prosecutors have done a good job with this," Sparkle Rai's father,
Bennet Reid Jr., said Saturday. "We'll be there in the courtroom. For
years my daughter has had no voice. Now, finally, her voice will be
heard."
Chiman Rai, a native of India, brought his family to the U.S. in 1970.
He taught math at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, later ran a
supermarket and then bought a hotel in Louisville, Ky., where he hired
Sparkle as a clerk.
There Sparkle met his son, 18-year-old Rajeeve "Ricky" Rai, who also
worked at the hotel. The two fell in love and married. Sparkle's father
and stepmother, Donna Lowry, a reporter for WXIA-TV in Atlanta,
recalled later that Rai's family at first seemed to approve of their
18-year-old son dating a black woman.
But, prosecutors said, in April 2000 —- a month after Sparkle and Ricky
were married —- a contract killer showed up at the door of the
newlywed's Union City apartment, along with two women pretending to
deliver a package.
When Sparkle opened the door, the 300-pound ex-con hit man attacked her
with such savagery she didn't have time to throw up her arms and shield
herself from his knife.
She was stabbed at least 13 times in the back, neck, chest and ribs.
She was strangled and her throat slit. When Ricky, then 20, returned
home from work he found her body and called police.
The couple's 7-month-old daughter, Analla, was unharmed in the next
room. Sparkle's father and stepmother later assumed custody of the girl
when Ricky Rai moved away from Atlanta.
A break in the case came four years later when one of the women who
accompanied the alleged hit man to Sparkle Rai's apartment was arrested
on a drug charge by Atlanta police.
She told them she knew who killed Sparkle —- and that she and a friend
witnessed the killing. The women's stories led to what authorities now
say was a murder plot concocted by Chiman Rai.
Rai and four others were arrested in September 2006 and charged in the
murder. Rai's attorney could not be reached for comment Friday. At a
bond hearing in 2006, defense attorney Mike McDaniel
Home 
Chiman Rai in court Monday.
Sparkle Michelle Rai
